302 WELCOME ASSISTANCE. 



in reply to my repeated and anxious inquiries as to 

 how far we had yet to descend, had rather unwillingly 

 informed me that there was still some " mooskhil " 

 (difficulty) below us. Moreover, I had casually dis- 

 covered that we were in the very gully down which the 

 avalanche of rocks and stones had fallen two nights 

 before. I was just beginning to realise the disagreeable 

 probability of our having to pass a cold gruesome night 

 in an upright position on some narrow ledge of rock, 

 when, to my infinite relief of mind, I heard voices below, 

 which were joyously replied to, and ere long the welcome 

 glimmer of a light appeared dimly struggling up through 

 the fog. Our two markers, who were Tolma men, after 

 picking up the musk-deer I had killed in the morning, 

 had returned to our bivouac by the lower route. Well 

 knowing the difficulties of the upper one, which they 

 thought it probable Ganna, to save time, would take, 

 they had, on its growing dark, started up the gully to 

 meet us, accompanied by my Goorkha servant carrying 

 a lantern. Another half-hour of very ticklish work took 

 us down to the tent, after a direct descent of several thou- 

 sand feet, a great part of which might, under the circum- 

 stances, have fairly been termed rather perilous. 



My time being then limited, I was reluctantly obliged 

 next day to quit this excellent though to me unlucky bit 

 of tahr-ground, by the same difficult way we had got at it. 

 But let us now resume our present trip, and in another 

 chapter try a turn at the burrell for a change. 



